Fran Winstock Interiors

Please see above.

This report is in reference to the Granite Counter Tops in my kitchen. My agreement was to get Santa Cecelia granite in my kitchen by my sink and by my stove. I explained to Fran I wanted superior granite and all the same color cut from the same slab. She agreed. After the granite was install I immediately told her the granite by my sink was not the granite by my stove. She disagreed and even had the installer tell me it was cut from the same stone. Well I told her either I was blind or something was wrong with this granite. There was no transitional coloring one side of the room was light and one side was yellow. Also the stone was a completely different pattern. I was cautioned by friends that they may try to install scrap granite left over from previous jobs. They get scrap at a fraction of the cost and charge you the same price. I brought another Interior Designer out to look at it, and she immediately told me it was definitely 100% different stone from a different slab. To make sure I brought someone in from Stone City that installs granite for a living. They immediately said this is definitely not the same stone. That it wasn't even close. To make a long story short Fran didn't install what I asked her to do. She took shortcuts in the name of profit. She is ridiculous. See the attached photos and judge for yourself. This lady is unqualified. We asked her at least 5 times to go to the warehouse to pick out the slabs. She always had an excuse. But we trusted her. End the end we know why she didn't want us going to the warehouse. One, we would have discovered that she was charging ridiculous prices, and two we wouldn't of allow her to pick scrap granite for us. See the pictures and decided for yourself. She gave us the bull about the lighting making the granite look different. If she has license she need them suspended. She has no business being in business. I question her credentials.

First of all, I would like to say if there was a category to give a grade to a consumer I would get an "F". I should have done more home work. We were taken in by her glitzy we, but we stopped there. We were pointed to some well selected references. Forget the references. I wish she would let me put a reference on her web site. My experience is not indicative of anyone else she has dealt with. She may have done good work for other people, but she failed us miserably. A red flag should have went up at the start since we called her in November and didn't receive a call back until January. But we agreed to have her come out. We told her up front we had a budget of $20,000.00. We kept asking what she charged. Again red flag. She said she made commissions of her sales. Let's try 100% commissions. She had me so convinced that I made the cardinal mistake of giving her a big chunk of cash up front. After I gave her $15,000.00 then that is when the drama started. All of a sudden she informed us the $20,000.00 budget wasn't to get it done and she started sending invoices with higher amounts every week. I started taking a closer look at what she was spending money on. First of all I found out that she had deceived not only me, but her painter. She told him I was holding up the project because his prices were to high. Before the paint job, I had another painter give me an estimate of $2,600.00 to paint the whole house, but I had to buy the paint. I never priced the paint (mistake). She convinced me that the paint was very high and some cabinets I need painting was driving the price up. To make a long story short she charged me $6,400.00 for the job. Her painter supplied the paint and he gave her an estimate of $4,000.00. He further reduced the price to by $700.00 because she lied about him being the hold up on the job. She pocked $3,000.00 just for the paint job and she didn't lift a brush. This is when I knew we had to get out. I wanted a hardwood floor kitchen but her prices were to high. So she convinced me to go the cheaper tile route. She told me the tile wad $3.75 a square feel. After the job, I priced the same tile at Home Depot for $1.32 per square feet. But the thing that really upset me was that her price for the tile ended up being more than the quote for the hardwood. When I received here invoice for the tile I was so upset I called her and told her the project was over. But she still had about $4,000.00 of mine and I knew I wasn't getting that money back. My wife convinced me to go forward after Fran called her and talked her into it. Three days after the tile was installed, grout on the bathtub was cracked from end to end. We ended up paying $5,100.00 for a tile job. I got an estimate from Fara for $1,200.00 for the same job. At this point we were definitely going to cancel, but Fran said she had already had the granite cut and it couldn't be used elsewhere. Should have definitely stopped here. But we went ahead and had the granite installed. I thought it was about $2,000.00 over priced but I figured this would be it. The granite job ended up being $6,000.00 for kitchen and two bathrooms. My wife liked the granite so much that I felt a little relief. But deep inside I was burning. Not to mention my wife and I noticed one thing about the granite in the kitchen. All the granite in the kitchen was suppose to be Santa Cecilia. But the counter top granite by the sink was different from the granite counter tops by the stove. One was visibly very darker than the other. Fran claimed it was the lighting. I have pictures you decide for yourself. We had an expert interior designer look at it and she told us one was indeed a low grade Santa Cecilia and the other was scrap Venetian Gold. She would also never agree to let us go actually look at the granite. Now we know why. Since then we've been to Stone City to look and the granite we got was vastly inferior to what we would have chosen. So she probably got some very cheap granite. Even if she didn't she still overcharged up by $2,000.00. We found that of all the major jobs she approximately double the price. We did stop here. We kicked her out and took the losses as a learning experience. We are true do it yourselfers now. There are other things too. I asked for wood blinds. She hung very cheap faux wood blinds and charged me for wood blinds. Our furniture Interior designer told us we could have bought all the blinds as home depot for a fraction of the cost. The same with the light fixtures. We ordered furniture early on like Feb 2. We received all the furniture April 14th. We are very disappointed in the furniture. It's not what we ordered. She sent me a rocking chair when I thought I was getting a nice plush chair. I can't stand to look at it. I've already scheduled a date with a veteran's organization to pick it up as soon as my Bassett Furniture arrives. We spent another $25,000.00 after Fran left on furniture. So if she would have been patient she would have made her commissions. But she wanted 100% commissions. I've had a lot of people ask me why I didn't sue here or why I am not angry. My response is it takes a victim to make a crook. I should have been smarter. My biggest mistake was trusting Fran. She would never would provide a written contract, but I trusted her. I should have ran the other way. There is a reason she doesn't provide a contract. That is her license to go up on prices, use inferior products, and just practice right out dishonesty. I'm glad its over. It was the project from h***. You live you learn. But what a way to learn. We have since worked with some great Interior Designers (That don't have aspirations to be contractors). I recommend Bassett Furniture, Wilson Furniture, I/O Metro, and Bartlett Furniture. For floors and carpet go to Fara. This guy is brutally honest. He completed my hardwood. His professionalism and honesty are unmatched. His prices were reasonable. The craftsmanship was very good. He quickly cleared up any issues we had. I don't recommend Fran Winstock Interiors. I still have nail holes in my walls they didn't seal up. My grout is cracked on my bathtub. I have terrible looking shoe molding in many spots. She never finished putting up my front and back porch light. Lights are still in the box. The problems are just to many to name. Money was never the issue as long as we were getting what we paid for. If you do decide to work with Fran make sure you follow some advice. 1. Under no circumstances let her start a project without a written and binding contract. Your not going to get it from her, so get your attorney to do it. 2. Make sure your estimate is final and complete. Don't let here go up on your estimate. 3. Work in a phased approach. See if you like her work first without telling her you are thinking about more. She missed out on about $25,000.00 because of substandard work. 4. Make her tell you in writing and on the estimates what she is being paid. She works for you. You are paying her salary. You have a right to know where your money is going. 5. Don't simply let her double the contractor's estimate. She gave us an estimate of $1,500.00 to redo our shower. By the next day, it had increased to $3,500.00. 6. Make sure everything, I mean everything is in writing. 7. Make sure everything is itemized. She is an expert in hiding profits in very general invoices. For example, don't let her give you an estimate for floors. Make her break it down into tile and wood. And further break down the labor and materials cost along with her take. It's your money you have the right to know where every penny goes. 8. Don't let her unilaterally make changes to the documents. 9. Get at least two estimates from other contractors. Even if you let her do it, you will still have a ball park figure of what the job is work before she doubles the price. 10. Validate her credentials. She has all these degrees on her web site. I asked to see here business license and Interior Design Certification. She ignored me. 11. Validate all her subcontractors. You need to know who is coming in your house. All the tires on my car were stolen right after the project. It's probably unrelated. But it's worth the validation. 12. Purchase your own materials. At least price your own materials. I was blown away by the price difference. 13. Make sure contractors leave all materials. When the grout in your bathtub cracks you are going to need the same color grout for the new contractor. 14. Be very aware of what is going on. Educate yourself. Trust landed me in a very bad situation. 15. If you estimate her commissions are much over 10%, run. 10% is industry standard. She is not a superstar in this industry to demand high rates. Don't be fooled by all that Vesta Home Show bull. 16. Know your style. You have to live with the furniture and the walls. Try it yourself. We were very surprised once we tried. I can't believe people get paid to actually tell people what they already know. You just have to find it in yourself. Everyone has artistic expression and style. I am no longer upset. I am not even telling you not to use her. I am just not recommending her. She may do great work for you. You can use my advice above for anyone you use. She had a good crew. I just a very detailed person and expect the maximum return for my dollar. I don't expect for painters to paint over nail holes. I expect tilers to know how to tile. And I expect Interior Designers to know how to design. I didn't get that. For us, this was probably a once in a lifetime upgrade. I thing the some people may know that they will not get your business again anyway and try to make as much as they can while they can. I have since had multiple people who asked the work and wanted a reference. I can't honestly give it.